Heartworm disease is a very serious disease that can be deadly if left untreated. As effective as preventative medicine is, your dog or cat can still become infected. Annual testing is a necessity. The sooner it’s detected, the better your pet’s chance of recovery.

Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal disease in pets in the USA and many other parts of the world. It is caused by foot-long worms (heartworms) that live in the heart, lungs and blood vessels of affected pets, causing severe lung disease, heart failure and damage to other organs in the body. Heartworm disease affects dogs, cats and ferrets, and—in rare instances—humans.

To learn more, please call us or schedule an appointment. You can also read more about heartworms at: www.heartwormsociety.org

Want to see the prevalence of heartworm, tick-borne ailments and intestinal parasites in the United States? You can even check out the numbers state by state (and county by county) by clicking the map link below. This map is provided by the Companion Animal Parasite Council. This map is just a small portion of the actual number of cases in the US. The CAPC notes that the numbers are "statistically significant and it serves as a strong representation of the parasite activity for each area. However, it does not represent the total number of positive tests." They estimate that it represents less than 30% of the activity in the geographic regions. The data shown is for the current year only.

Dirofilaria immitis, the heartworm or dog heartworm, is a parasitic roundworm that is spread from host to host through the bites of mosquitoes. The heartworm is a type of filaria, a small thread-like worm, that causes filariasis. The definitive host is the dog, but it can also infect cats, wolves, coyotes, foxes and other animals, such as ferrets, sea lions and even, under very rare circumstances, humans.The parasite is commonly called “heartworm”; however, adults often reside in the pulmonary arterial system (lung arteries) as well as the heart, and a major effect on the health for the animal is a manifestation of damage to the lung vessels and tissues.Occasionally, adult heartworms migrate to the right heart and even the great veins in heavy infections. Heartworm infection may result in serious disease for the host, with death typically as the result of congestive heart failure.

What is heartworm disease?

Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal disease in pets in the United States and many other parts of the world. It is caused by foot-long worms (heartworms) that live in the heart, lungs and associated blood vessels of affected pets, causing severe lung disease, heart failure and damage to other organs in the body. Heartworm disease affects dogs, cats and ferrets, but heartworms also live in other mammal species, including wolves, coyotes, foxes, sea lions and—in rare instances—humans. Because wild species such as foxes and coyotes live in proximity to many urban areas, they are considered important carriers of the disease.

Dogs. The dog is a natural host for heartworms, which means that heartworms that live inside the dog mature into adults, mate and produce offspring. If untreated, their numbers can increase, and dogs have been known to harbor several hundred worms in their bodies. Heartworm disease causes lasting damage to the heart, lungs and arteries, and can affect the dog’s health and quality of life long after the parasites are gone. For this reason, prevention is by far the best option, and treatment—when needed—should be administered as early in the course of the disease as possible.

Cats. Heartworm disease in cats is very different from heartworm disease in dogs. The cat is an atypical host for heartworms, and most worms in cats do not survive to the adult stage. Cats with adult heartworms typically have just one to three worms, and many cats affected by heartworms have no adult worms. While this means heartworm disease often goes undiagnosed in cats, it’s important to understand that even immature worms cause real damage in the form of a condition known as heartworm associated respiratory disease (HARD). Moreover, the medication used to treat heartworm infections in dogs cannot be used in cats, so prevention is the only means of protecting cats from the effects of heartworm disease.